Organizational Legitimacy and Managerialism Within Social Justice Nonprofit Organizations: An Interest Divergence Analysis

Abstract

Managerialism is a concept of considerable interest for nonprofit scholars, particularly as it relates to the abilities of social value-driven nonprofit organizations to perform mission-related activities. This article addresses this question by framing the operationalization of managerialism within social justice-oriented nonprofits as a process aimed at achieving and maintaining organizational legitimacy. Data from in-depth interviews with staff members at three social justice nonprofit organizations are presented. A lens of interest divergence is employed to analyze the impact of this process on the mission-driven goals of the organizations, as well as the ways in which managerialism may inadvertently support the maintenance of social inequity and disparity.

NOTES

Notes

1 Critical Legal Studies emerged from the work of Antonio Gramsci, an Italian Marxist theorist who is best known for his work on cultural hegemony.

2 It should be noted that participants did not use the term managerialism to describe the processes taking place, but instead described attributes of managerialism ideology and practice that were occurring within the organizations.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lauren Willner

Lauren Willner is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at California State University, Northridge. Her research focuses generally on the role of nonprofit organizations in mitigating social and economic inequity. Specifically, Dr. Willner investigates the ways in which for-profit strategies and practices, when embraced by social justice oriented nonprofit organizations, inadvertently reproduce systems of inequity for disenfranchised populations. She is a community engaged scholar and favors a critical approach to research.